"PressPausePlay" is worth the watch. Specifically because technology is complicating the creative endeavour.I recently read about how concert tickets are becoming increasingly expensive because artists aren't making enough off record sales. I know for sure that online streaming services, for a small fee per month, are putting me in touch with existing and new music artists, but am I a fan? This is something raised by one of the interviewees in "PressPausePlay", who says that live concerts require a music listener's commitment - they have to leave the comfort of their home, and the endless playlist on the computer, to experience an event where anything can happen; where the artist may not sound as they do on the recording."PressPausePlay" also touches on how creative technologies have become cheaper, allowing anyone the means to be creative. One interviewee shares a great analogy: were we to develop tiny self-replicating machines, unchecked - at some point, the world would be inundated with grey goo.After watching this documentary, three things stand out for me: 1. it is good that the means of producing something artistic is now in more hands, but 2. it is becoming more difficult for the consumer to not be overwhelmed by the volumes of creative material out there, and 3. one needs to guard against the audience becoming the artist.What I like about PressPausePlay is that it draws opinions from people in different creative industries, and that it talks about both technological innovation as a phenomenon and how the artist engages with new technology in his or her own way. I enjoyed Ólafur Arnalds' journey in the documentary.Overall, the production value is impressive. PressPausePlay is beautifully shot, and I enjoyed the montages that punctuate some sequences. I liked how they used sounds of performances in the cut. Most importantly, it made me think about how I practise my craft in a time where just about anyone can make their own movie.

Dominating theme of the documentary seems to be "how we all are going to make it again while here are so many of us now?" while viewers are not given a single tangible example of how digitalization has actually changed the actual artistic work-flow and how it would purportedly simplify a creative process given that the objective is still to make something new, fresh and meaningful. Does it really matter then that if the process takes couple of minutes or 6 months then? After 30 minutes watching I couldn't help but ask myself why all those people tell us things that everyone must have heard and read million times already and why the makers of the documentary suppose that I or someone else would automatically accept their authority and expertise in things that they are talking about.Even worse, commentators fail to support their opinions with hard facts or wider academic perspective that would help to explain why so many arguably would like to make art themselves now more than previously. While hipsters don't try to disguise their infatuation for their nice new toys, no one explains convincingly why so many now can afford to buy those things, let alone make their art full-time.While the documentary tells us that "craft is gone" and anyone could make music now, the only thing that epitomizes the assertion is annoying repetitive schmaltz playing in the background.

I watched this documentary after stumbling upon it on Techcrunch. While it deals with pertinent issues and has a few important points to make, the presentation leaves more to be desired. The documentary keeps skimming through various people without actually giving enough time to a particular artist (with the exception of a particular Icelandic artist). What I was expecting was insight into particular phenomena through somewhat detailed case studies. Instead, what the movie offers is recurring commentary by people in the industry, journalists etc., which doesn't add significantly to what we already know. And there is something about the general flow which makes it come across as somewhat one sided and closed in. There isn't a narrator who is outlining the flow; there isn't an interviewer who would challenge some of the views; there isn't really any data or public opinion. The movie just keeps flitting from one person's view to another. The views themselves vary from being sometimes speciously authoritative to being completely clueless. And there are these montages of live musical performances thrown in, which again don't cover a particular act, but are just collages of scenes with some music playing in the background. The movie falls prey to some of the very pitfalls that it warns about; in an attention deficit world reliant heavily on technology, mediocrity in art is a very real danger.

PressPausePlay is a provocative documentary that explores what is happening to art, literature, music, and film in an age where everyone can be an artist. (Although not discussed in this film, there is a very similar situation in news media where established media is losing its economic base due to the growth web logs and news aggregation websites.) As a result of new technologies such as digital cameras, video editing software, and the web, we now provide more and more people with the ability to create and distribute various forms of art in a manner that never existed before in history. Millions of people can produce art at relatively low costs compared to what it used to produce a film, a song, or a book. Thus a million flowers are allowed to bloom, but it seems like the standards of quality are being diluted. The gatekeepers have been lost in the new digitized world, because individuals get to decide that they can produce art. PressPausePlay has begun look at this truly profound question of what is art and what is it becoming in the digital age? This excellent documentary explores these questions through interviews with a series of articulate and thoughtful artists and commentators. This is a conversation that we need to be having in the information age. Democratization of art may in fact be produces millions of mediocre YouTube video and songs at cost that the talent of real artists may be overshadowed. This is a trouble situation that needs a lot more discussion.